TBM Kaveri Makes a Breakthrough at Bangalore’s Majestic Station
16 months after the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) Kaveri was commissioned from the Chickpet station in Bangalore, it finally made a breakthrough at the South-Shaft of the Majestic station!
The Coastal-TTS JV which is in charge of building the Green Line’s tunnels (contract UG1) had originally procured this EPBM TBM from German manufacturer Herrenknecht’s Chinese facility in 2012. After excavating & building the 432m up-line tunnel between KR Market station – Chickpet station in October 2014, TBM Kaveri was then redeployed to construct the 747m down-line tunnel between the Chickpet & Majestic stations. Temporary ring erection began in mid-February 2015 and the contractor then began placing permanent rings in early March 2015.
The TBM’s operation & maintenance was handled by a team of more than 50 personnel from the Robbins Company who were brought in to get the much delayed tunneling drives completed. During its 16 month journey from Chickpet, the TBM encountered everything from soft soil to mixed face conditions of hard & granite rock. Besides that, the crew had to also take into account the extremely precarious nature of old structures/buildings above and registered & illegal borewells along its route.
Satellite view of the Majestic station’s southern shaft where the breakthrough took place:
Alignment of Chickpet – Majestic station – view Bangalore metro map & information
Photo Copyright: Sharath Kumara
THE moment – Photo Copyright: Nolan Pinto
Photo Copyright: Bangalore Connect
TBM Krishna will arrive on the right side in a couple of months – Photo Copyright: CPRO Namma Metro
Photo Copyright: Sharath Kumara
Photo Copyright: KJ George
Photo Copyright: Dileep Kumar Reddy
Info board setup by Robbins – Photo Copyright: Nolan Pinto
Video:
With the breakthrough out of the way, the down-line tunnels of the Green Line bored by TBM Margarita and TBM Kaveri are now ‘complete’, but it’ll be at least another 6 months before they can be used for sending trains down to Reach 4 (National College – Puttenahalli) for conducting trials – that’s if the BMRCL indeed plans to open that section as a standalone section like it did with Reach 2 (Magadi Road – Mysore Road) in 2015.
Now only 1 final breakthrough by TBM Krishna (Kaveri’s sister machine) is left to be made on the parallel up-line tunnel. Here’s the latest on that:
TBM Status as on 06.06.2016
Krishna:Tunneling bet C’pete &Majestic stn 573m (382 rings completed.166.5m (111 rings bal 2reach Majestic Stn
— Namma Metro CPRO (@uavasanthrao) June 6, 2016
For more updates, check out the Bangalore section of The Metro Rail Guy!
– TMRG
Thanks for the Update , Thought it might take another 3 Months to start testing . approx. about 45 days to disassemble and another 30 days to lay track ??
Hi, some other critical tasks include laying the track-bed, installing systems, constructing cross-passages and covering up the shafts. Long way to go here.
Make sense 🙂
what is the status of works between sampige road and majestic
No indication of track-work even starting. CPRO hasn’t responded back to multiple tweets.
The information here is much faster than any local news channels and looks like Kaveri TBM had tough ride among huge rocks…
I try to stay on top of things & update accordingly 🙂
Hurray ….! :):) 🙂 I thought it would another decade or so 😛
Finally BMRCL has done something after so much idiotic things
I hope (still hope) they start the metro green line by 2016 ( year end )
Is that even possible @TMRG …??
If things r done in r8 way how much time it would take for signalling track work and station work ..??
Do u have any idea still how far is another TBM OR BBDM (Bangalore breaking down machine) ..?
Thanks for d update 🙂
I would like to call it happy update
and if u can give some advice to BMRCL about ur swiftness about news
Let them also Learn how to construct fast
Hi, 2016 opening for entire Green Line is not possible. If anything, they’ll only be able to open the Sampige Road – Majestic section, which would be nice in itself. TBM Krishna’s status is mentioned above. It’s got a few more months to arrive here.
Though it may sound pessimistic, your assessment is probably better than Kharola’s or BMRCL’s. I saw tweets saying that Krishna will come out in 45 to 60 days, and that they will finish track laying etc., in the tunnel bored by Kaveri in 3 months. How ridiculous.
If I remember correctly, dismantling of Krishna/Godavari itself took almost 2 months last time when they both had breakthroughs. Isn’t it ?
Anyways, if they wanna expedite, they could possibly start the track-bed laying from the Chickpet side while Kaveri is slowly pulled out. The key is to do things in parallel and in agile way.
Hi, not just ridiculous, but shameless of them to continue peddling lies. Construction challenges are understandable, but deceiving announcements are not.
TBM dismantling process takes an average of 60 days. Within that timeframe, they must also build the last 5 rings of the tunnel while pushing the TBM out. At Delhi’s Lal Qila station, recently they brought one TBM out in 17 days! Let’s see how BMRCL’s contractors do.
If you look at the June newsletter, then you’d notice that track-bed work hasn’t even started between KR Market-Chickpet. And that stretch’s tunneling work was completed in August 2015 after Krishna made a breakthrough.
is there any video of breakthrough?
None of that I know of. Will share if & when it is available.
Ok thanku,,
Thanku for uploading video of breakthrough TMRG?,,
Anytime!
Hi TMRG, the BMRCL has posted their June Newsletter.
Thanks! Posting my update on that soon.
Was a good decision for the BMRCL to complete Puttenahalli – National college stretch (considering cost escalation), inspite of knowing the tunneling work would get over only in the end of this year…
Hi, the Green Line’s underground & elevated packages are handled by different contractors. National college – Puttenahalli’s multiple contractors completed their work as required. They weren’t influenced by the underground section’s progress.
I feel so upbeat reading your updates and seeing the pictures. As per TOI, the entire phase I will be ready by Rajyotsava
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/bengaluru/Metro-trials-in-South-Bengaluru-to-begin-in-September/articleshow/52664783.cms
It means that Krishna needs to have a breakthrough by mid July? Possible?
Hi, despite the BMRCL & govt’s assurances, there’s zero chances of the entire line opening by November 1. Krishna will breakthrough sometime between July end & September.
Hello Folks, I recently came back to Bangalore (after being in Bangalore for almost 5 years). I had left Bangalore in June-2014, with a very pleasant memory of taking a ‘curiosity’ ride across MG Road to Byappanhalli. During my stay in Hyderabad (my hometown), the impending start of metro services used to give me a sense of achievement. But you can imagine how unpredictable the reality is. While I see the trial runs happening on the Kukkatpally section of the line (the pulmonary artery of the ‘new’ city), for the last 9 months, there is no promise of ‘udghathan’. Maybe, the powers that be are postponing or are there engineering challenges. Similar to TMRG sir, are there any updates for Hyderabad. Thanks.